A Guest Post

OBAMA-CLOWARD-PIVEN

Co-authored by Mustang and Z: A blog burst

Admittedly, I have very few good things to say about either Richard Cloward or Frances Fox Piven.  I believe they are among this country’s most contemptible personalities.  I believe this because of their efforts to destroy American society and replace our traditional society with one modeled on the Soviet Union.  They are, in my view, classic examples of enemies of the state and they did everything within their power to bring this country’s government to its knees.  In spite of this disdain, a short summary of each is warranted as an introduction to this piece.

Richard Cloward (1926-2001) was a sociologist and political activist who developed the notion that criminal behavior is caused by social factors.  It was a notion that sought to find an explanation for unacceptable behavior by blaming everyone, except, of course, for the criminal himself.  In 1966, Cloward published a paper that he titled “The Weight of the Poor: A strategy to end poverty[1],” and co-founded the National Welfare Rights Organization and advocated federalization of Aid to Families with Dependent Children.  To Cloward, the Constitutional limitation of government didn’t really matter; ardent communists rarely care about Constitutions and such.  In 1992, he and his wife Frances Fox Piven created another organization called “Human SERVE” (Service Employees[2] Registration and Voter Education), which helped to establish the so-called motor-voter programs leading to the Motor Voter Act of 1993[3].

Frances Fox Piven (1932—) unfortunately remains with us today.  She remains a professor of political science and sociology with the University of New York system, and was previously associated with Boston College.  Her parents immigrated to Canada, where she was born, and then further migrated to the United States.  Piven was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York and became a naturalized citizen in 1953.  She received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1962.  At Boston University, she was an associate of Dr. Murray Levin and Dr. Howard Zinn (both of whom promoted Marxism) and participated with them in the so-called professor’s strike in 1979.  She continues to associate herself with the Democratic Socialists of America organization.  Among those who think this isn’t so bad, you will please note that Vladimir Lenin established socialism as the only viable path to communism.

Together, Cloward-Piven developed what has become known as the Cloward-Piven Strategy, outlined in 1966 and calling for the overloading of the U. S. public welfare system in order to precipitate crises that were beyond the ability of government bureaucracies to manage.  It would, in other words, cause the collapse of the U. S. government and lead to the creation of a national welfare state paid for through onerous taxation imposed upon working Americans.  Cloward-Piven supposed that this could be the result of forcing the Democratic Party (which in 1966 controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency) to federalize all poverty based programs.  Now of course, this is very close to what Lyndon Johnson foresaw in his now infamous Great Society scam ... which Americans are still struggling to pay for today.  In The Weight of the Poor, Cloward-Piven wrote, “The ultimate objective of this strategy —to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income—will be questioned by some.  Because the ideal of individual social and economic mobility has deep roots, even activists seem reluctant to call for national programs to eliminate poverty by the outright redistribution of income.”

We do not need to study further Barack Obama’s stated goals toward the redistribution of income —he’s been doing this very thing now since the American people elected him to the presidency in 2008.  Instead, consider the people with whom Obama has surrounded himself, and you come up with a composite of neo-Marxist activism over the past 60 years.  Then add to this mix the strategy, which is to so overwhelm the federal system that it will collapse upon itself and open the way for extraordinary executive action.  Has Barack Obama employed the Cloward-Piven strategy to destroy what is left of the United States of America?  The number of assaults on our social and political culture has been nothing if not overwhelming —it has been a continuous onslaught even to the extent that most people have been unable to keep up with all of Obama’s shenanigans. 

 
·       Mr. Obama and his acolytes have undertaken to rewrite American history, even to include the assertion that Mohammedans participated in the American Revolutionary War.  There is nothing in history even remotely accurate in this, but it serves to demonstrate how Obama seeks to change our history.  If you can change a country’s history—or the people’s perception of it, then you can likewise redefine national character and culture.
 
·       Mr. Obama went on an international apology tour where he visited European and Middle Eastern countries—telling these people that Americans are arrogant and egocentric, that our claim to American Exceptionalism is undeserved.  It was a two-fold mission: Obama also intended to send a strong message to the American people about what he thought of them, and of the United States.
 
·       By asserting federal authority over private corporations, at the taxpayer’s expense, of course, he usurped the Constitutional limits on federal government.  In this, Barack Obama had the willing assistance of every single Democrat in the Congress, and particularly of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi[4].
 
·       Barack Obama has increased federal spending and increased our national debt to in excess of $17 trillion.  In 2008, our national debt was only $9.8 trillion.  US federal spending increased from $2.8 trillion to $3.5 trillion, which amount to budget deficits of $294 billion and $606 billion, respectively.
 
·       Since taking office, Barack Obama has signed 180 executive orders, thereby bypassing the legislative process and pushing forward the notion that he is creating an imperial presidency.  Arguments abound whether the number of his executive orders are extraordinary, but rather than looking at the number of executive orders, we should consider the topics where he has sought to circumvent Congress[5].
 
·       Under Barack Obama, the government has imposed high taxes on job creators and created huge budget deficits.  Some say this is the worst-case scenario of any administration since Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, whom everyone affectionately called Caligula; it is a paradox that forces one to wonder if Obama looks upon deficits as a mechanism to increase taxes.
 
·       Do near-zero interest rates act as a stimulus for a moribund economy, or does it act as a mechanism for demanding even more public funded welfare assistance and public sector hiring?  This we know for certain: low interest rates have sharpened the distinction between the haves and the have-nots.  Wealthy persons have benefitted, and the very poor don’t care because they are already getting something for nothing.
 
·       In the Time Before Obama, the production of natural gas and nuclear power were viewed as preferable alternatives to oil and coal, but since Obama —even in spite of his destruction of coal as an industry, what we now must contend with is enormously expensive electricity bills on the backs of those who can least afford it.  There will be no relief under Obama and one must wonder why he has undertaken these destructive policies.  Well, actually, we do know why.
 
·       Race relations in this country would not be worse today had either Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell become our president —but under Barack Obama, racial polarization is at its highest levels since Reconstruction.  We have heard Eric Holder speak of “my people,” and we all heard him say that America is a nation of cowards ... but should anyone endeavor to have a discussion on race, they are immediately classified as racists and right-wing extremists.
 
·       In 2007, there were essentially two views about immigration policy.  Liberalists argued for relaxing immigration rules (in order to increase their voter base), while realists favored border sovereignty and reinforcing that America is a nation of laws.  No one can embark upon a path to citizenship that is willing to break our immigration laws on their first day.  Today, under Obama, illegal immigrants are streaming across our borders in droves.  The debate has become both racial and political.  Recently, suddenly, and quite inexplicably, tens of thousands of children have arrived at our border and these have somehow managed to end up in Arizona, whose sovereign is Governor Jan Brewer, a hated enemy of the Obama camp.
 
·       A little over one year ago, we learned the extent to which the NSA is spying on the American people; two years ago we learned that Obama’s IRS was being used as a political vendetta mechanism against conservatives; three years ago we learned that the Social Security Administration and IRS paid out multiple millions of dollars rewarding democratic employees for their loyalty.  It is no wonder then, that Obama and his henchmen don’t actually care what we think about Benghazi or the Taliban Five.
 
·       Obama also announced a preference for the Mohammedan Brotherhood operating inside the United States, and specifically within American prisons, and in this process of ingratiating himself to this foreign ideology, Obama gave us the Arab Spring, which is nothing but an unmitigated disaster for US foreign policy and American credibility abroad.  Now, many Americans go to bed at night asking for an American Spring —whereby we may somehow rid ourselves of this pathetic excuse for a president.

·       Finally, we have noted one continuous assault upon our Second Amendment rights, and at the same time we learn that the Obama administration is providing military- style arms and equipment to local police agencies.  The likely purpose for this is enough to send chills up our spines.  What is Obama planning for us next?

Who is helping Obama to manage the never-ending stream of crises?  Why, John Podesta, of course —and Valerie Jarrett, both of whom are vapid Marxists; red-diaper babies and adherents to the view that they can destroy America, they can demoralize the American people, by overwhelming them and their institutions —Cloward-Piven.

At this stage, of course ... there is nothing anyone can do about this.  Obama has a free reign for another 3 years.  It may even be true that we haven’t seen anything yet...

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[1] Advocating the defeat of poverty by causing the collapse of Republican democracy

[2] Any similarity between this and the Service Employees International Union is more than coincidental

[3] Which explains how illegal aliens are able to vote, along with citizens long deceased

[4] Remember this the next time you hear a Democratic politician tell you how much he loves the American way of life...

[5] List of United States Federal Executive Orders (13489 and above)